Britain’s most senior police officer has been accused of attempting to shift blame on to victims of online fraud after he suggested consumers should not be refunded by banks if they fail to protect themselves from cybercrime.

Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Metropolitan police commissioner, said customers who had fallen foul of online fraudsters were being “rewarded for bad behaviour” instead of incentivised to update anti-virus software and improve passwords.

His comments in the Times come as police brace themselves for an expected surge in overall crime figures when cybercrime estimates are included in official statistics for the first time in July.

Last year it was revealed that police follow up fewer than one in 100 frauds and there were fewer than 9,000 convictions out of more than 3m frauds in 12 months.

GCHQ estimates that 80% of cybercrime, which is thought to cost £1bn a year, could be prevented by better passwords and regularly updated security software.